This invention relates to a method and device employing ultraviolet light to sterilize medical instruments.
One common problem that hospitals face today is the spread of nosocomial infections. Many of these infections are caused by organisms that have become resistant to the anti-microbial arsenal. The nosocomial infections pose a huge health and financial burden on hospitals, doctors, and patients. People infected by these resistant organisms often have to be hospitalized for extended periods of time and pay for expensive anti-microbial medications. Furthermore, a significant percentage of infected patients are prone to ultimate health deterioration and potentially fatal consequences.
Nosocomial infections are frequently caused by medical staff that inadvertently spread disease from one patient to another. Poor hand washing, re-use of medical devices, or failure to sterilize the environment, all may increase the chance of distributing the microbial organisms. However, with hand washing becoming widely practiced in hospitals, medical devices are now a main channel to the spread nosocomial infections. By way of example, stethoscopes are a very common medical device that is used recurrently on different patients wherein the medical worker brings the head of the stethoscope, which contains the bell or diaphragm, into contact with the patient's body. They act as a vector to spread microorganisms and diseases. Therefore, patients in isolation are often treated using a “disposable” stethoscope, which can provide only limited patient information due to its inferior quality.
As most resistant microbes are vulnerable to the germicidal effects of the UV radiation, the ultraviolet (UV) light technology is commonly used to sterilize surfaces. The UV light source, as implemented in conventional techniques, is typically placed in a housing constructed of materials such as glass or clear plastic. The housing has been adapted to fit in a shirt or jacket pocket of a user, with a clip to attach to the user's pocket or belt. U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,233 (“the '233 patent”), which issued to Richard T. Clement on Apr. 6, 1999, is an example that describes such techniques.
The device disclosed in the '233 patent and the like suffer certain problems by virtue of the structure and materials employed. For example, the device depicted therein requires a component to uphold the medical apparatus such as stethoscope, thereby entailing unnecessary parts and materials. Moreover, the materials used for the disclosed device such as clear plastic and glass do not provide effective irradiation due to their transparency quality.